Bruce Winchell

20-05

On June 14, 2019, the Department assessed the Taxpayer for $203 in gross receipts tax penalty and interest after having determined that gross receipts tax had not been paid on business income reported on the Taxpayer’s federal return. On June 28, 2019, the Taxpayer submitted a formal protest. The issues to be decided in the protest were whether income earned from a tea shop located in Ohio and teaching the Taxpayer did at the University of New Mexico and outside the state were subject to gross receipts tax. Though the location of the business had been reported incorrectly as Albuquerque on the federal income tax return, the Taxpayer was able to provide ample evidence that the tea shop was in Ohio and the receipts from the business had occurred in that state and had been subject to Ohio sales tax. Since these receipts were not from engaging in business in New Mexico, they are not subject to New Mexico gross receipts tax. The incorrect location appeared to the Hearing Officer to be only a minor mistake on return, however more significant was that the income from teaching that had been incorrectly reported by the Taxpayer on the federal return on the Schedule C as business income, because, the Taxpayer explained, at the time he had believed this portion of income had been contract work instead of wage income, though he was issued a W-2. By reporting this income as business income he was also allowed to claim business deductions on the federal return. Though this income was reported incorrectly, the Taxpayer never amended the return. The Hearing Officer determined that as long as the federal return showed this income to be business income, the income was subject to gross receipts tax, which the Taxpayer conceded. This having been decided the Hearing Officer ordered the tax on the income from the tea shop abated, as well as the income earned from teaching out-of-state, and ordered the rest of the assessment to be paid.